April 2012 MMA News Archive - Page 3

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Former WEC champion Jamie Varner (19-6-1) has replaced Alex Morono (4-1) and now meets Lee King (16-16-1) at next month's Legacy Fighting Championships 11 event.
LFC promoter Mick Maynard today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) about the 160-pound catchweight fight, which will be part of the night's HDNet-televised main card.
Legacy Fighting Championship 11 takes place May 11 at Houston's Arena Theater.
Varner vs. King is one of seven bouts airing on HDNet.

And the plot thickens...
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Alistair Overeem, who appeared in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) today (April 24, 2012), has attributed the results of his failed drug test back on March 27 to anti-inflammatory medication he received out of competition to help with his recovery from a rib injury.
That medication, which included self-injections containing testosterone, was prescribed by performance-enhancement doctor Hector Oscar Molina, who was referred to "The Reem" by former UFC fighter Tra Telligman.
The same Dr. Hector Oscar Molina that was fined $25,000 and slapped with restrictions on his practice for three years for "prescribing controlled substances and dangerous drugs over the Internet without establishing a proper physician-patient relationship."

UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones is the undisputed #1 LHW in the world according to the USA TODAY/MMA Nation Consensus Rankings. He's also the most dominant LHW UFC champ since Chuck Liddell's reign ended in 2007 and yet fans are not flocking to the 24-year-old champ to the degree his accomplishments would seem to merit.
MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani asked Jones' next challenger, UFC, Pride and Strikeforce veteran Dan Henderson for his take on why Jones isn't clicking with fans. Henderson's reply was characteristically direct:

After Saturday night's UFC 145 card, there are many left wondering who will be the one to dethrone Jon Jones. With an incredible reach advantage, and a very well rounded, complete game, the list is relatively short. I spoke with Muhammed Lawal recently, to get his take on the situation, and find out what's on the horizon for "King" Mo.

This past weekend's UFC 145 preliminary-card broadcast scored a record 1.6 million viewers on FX.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the ratings information with industry sources.
The April 21 broadcast, which preceded the night's pay-per-view main card, bested every UFC on FX main-card broadcast and PPV preliminary-card special since the UFC moved from Spike TV to the FOX family of channels earlier this year.
UFC 145 took place at Atlanta's Phillips Arena, and in the headliner, UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones defended his title with a unanimous-decision victory over Rashad Evans. On the two-hour FX-televised prelims, which followed earlier prelims on Facebook, notables such as Travis Browne, Matt Brown, Mac Danzig and Anthony Njokuani picked up victories.
Previously, Spike TV aired 27 "UFC Prelims" specials that averaged 1.5 million viewers. The UFC 145 prelims special is the first on FX to best that average.
Additionally, every FX-televised UFC prelims special has topped ratings for the previous one.

Despite what was arguably Bellator's biggest fight and biggest show of its sixth season, this past weekend's Bellator 66 event saw a ratings plunge.
The April 20 broadcast averaged just 109,000 MTV2 viewers, MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie,com) today confirmed with industry sources. That's down 33 percent from the 163,000 viewers who tuned in for Bellator 65 a week prior.
It's also the third-worst figure in Bellator and MTV2's 32-event history.
Bellator 66 took place at Cleveland's I-X Center. In addition to MTV2, many websites, including MMAjunkie.com, also carried the prelims and main-card fights, which could have put a dent in the ratings figure.
Still, it's bad news for Bellator, which boasted a big headliner and rematch between Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki at Bellator 65. The event, which saw Alvarez earn a first-round victory, also featured four tournament-semifinal fights in the middleweight and welterweight divisions, as well as a loaded preliminary card. Middleweight-tourney finalists Andreas Spang and Maiquel Falcao had a brief post-fight scuffle at the event, though even that dustup didn't help ratings.

It may be a lot easier this time around for Chael Sonnen (27-11-1 MMA, 6-4 UFC) to get licensed in Nevada.
Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that he sees no issues with granting the fighter a license to fight at UFC 148, though he will ultimately defer to NSAC Chairman Raymond "Skip" Avansino.
"He's done his time," Kizer told MMAjunkie.com. "He's come clean on his prior dishonesty, and that's all appreciated."
The UFC announced this morning that Sonnen's rematch with champ Anderson Silva (31-4 MMA, 14-0 UFC) is being moved to the July 7 pay-per-view event after venue problems scratched it from UFC 147.
The bout now serves as the pay-per-view headliner of UFC 148, which takes place July 7 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Earlier interactions between Sonnen and the Nevada commission weren't so friendly. Kizer said the fighter lied about receiving approval from him to use prescribed testosterone for a fight against Nate Marquardt at UFC 109. Kizer said Sonnen also disparaged referee Josh Rosenthal.
These issues were at the center of a closed-door meeting with Kizer, Sonnen and UFC officials to address the alleged lies and discuss what Sonnen should expect if he applied for a second's (cornerman's) license to serve as a coach on "The Ultimate Fighter 14" opposite Michael Bisping this past year. (Jason "Mayhem" Miller ultimately took Sonnen's spot.)
Kizer said the meeting did not go well and said Sonnen would be required to appear before the commission before being granted the license.

The same day that UFC president Dana White announced that he is likely taking featherweight champion Jose Aldo off of the fight card in Calgary, the Calgary Sun reported that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira would face Cheick Kongo at UFC 149.
Though the Calgary Sun cited anonymous sources pointing to the fight, the UFC’s Canadian contingent endorsed the report by re-tweeting it.

Shannon Knapp wants just one minute of MMA fans' time this Saturday night.
Once she has your eyeballs, Knapp is sure viewers will continue to watch the Invicta Fighting Championships debut event in Kansas City, Kan.
"The biggest thing is just encouraging everyone to have an open mind," Invicta Fighting Championships CEO Knapp told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) in advance of the promotion's 11-bout, all-female card that takes place at Memorial Hall.
"If you love this sport, then how can you not embrace it whether it's male or female athletes competing? Give us a shot. I'm definitely sure you will not be disappointed. Even if you hate women's MMA, come on over and check it out for a minute — at least you'll have something to talk about on the forums."

Powerhouse middleweight wrestlers Chris "All American" Weidman and Mark "The Filipino Wrecking Machine" Munoz will battle in the five-round main event of UFC on FUEL TV, the just-announced July 11 fight night. The news was announced on the April 24 edition of FUEL TV's UFC Tonight.

World-ranked middleweight Hector Lombard will leave his longtime home at Bellator and sign with the UFC.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney confirmed the move to MMA Fighting on Tuesday afternoon.
Bellator had a right to match the UFC's offer to the man who was their reigning middleweight champion, but Rebney cited differences between the two organizational models as the obstacle that could not be overcome when it came to matching the UFC's deal.
"We have a business model where we make decisions based on analyzing data," he said. "Since the first day we came into being, we made decisions based on real models, not hypotheticals. The UFC model is largely based on pay-per-view, and the offer they made to Hector is going to be monetized via pay-per-view. While pay-per-view could play a role in our future, today it doesn't. So, we did our due diligence to review the UFC contract, analyze it in terms of charging our audience to see Hector vs. putting him on free TV, and we decided to allow the UFC to sign Hector, where I am extremely confident he will win the UFC middleweight title on pay-per-view."

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Alistair Overeem appeared in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) today (April 24, 2012) to answer for a failed drug test administered back on March 27 in advance of the UFC 146 pay-per-view (PPV) event on May 26 in Las Vegas.
"Demolition Man" returned a testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) level of 14:1, which he subsequently blamed on anti-inflammatory medication -- not performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) -- but it didn't stop the UFC from pulling him from his upcoming bout against Junior dos Santos and replacing him with former 265-pound champion Frank Mir.
It turned out to be the right call.
Overeem came into today's hearing saddled with the burden of proving that he was indeed the victim of bad medicine -- not bad intentions -- and requested a continuance from the NSAC to help his team prepare its case and "demonstrate Alistair's intent."
Request denied.

With UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo likely off the card and headed to UFC 147 in Brazil, July's UFC 149 event in Calgary may still get a title fight.
At a press conference today in Rio de Janeiro, UFC president Dana White mentioned the possibility of light-heavyweight champ Jon Jones (16-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) and Dan Henderson (29-8 MMA, 5-2 UFC) headlining UFC 149.
However, White said it'll depend on Jones' recovery following this past weekend's win over Rashad Evans.
"If we could make that fight happen (at UFC 149), that'd be great," White said.
UFC 149 takes place July 21 at Calgary's Scotiabank Saddledome. The night's main card airs on pay-per-view.

Although the event has lost its headliner, UFC 147 will soldier on.
At a press conference today in Rio de Janeiro, UFC president Dana White today announced UFC 147 will take place at a date to be determined with a Wanderlei Silva (34-11-1 MMA, 4-6 UFC) vs. Vitor Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC) bout. Additionally featherweight champion Jose Aldo also (21-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) is expected to fight at the event.
A previously announced headliner and rematch between middleweight champion Anderson Silva (31-4 MMA, 14-0 UFC) and challenger Chael Sonnen (27-11-1 MMA, 6-4 UFC) has been moved to July's UFC 148 event, as MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) reported earlier today.
Currently, White said, a date and venue have not been determined for UFC 147, though it'll remain in Brazil.
UFC officials initially announced UFC 147 as taking place June 23 at Joao Havelange Stadium (also known as Engenhao Stadium) in Rio. However, White recently said conflicts with the United Nations' "Rio +20" meeting, which is scheduled for June 20-22 in Rio, could prompt some changes. Instead of the stadium, which could have broken the UFC's all-time attendance record (55,724 attendees at UFC 129), UFC 147 now is searching for a new venue.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight Stephan Bonnar has a big personality, which can sometimes rub people the wrong way.
One such instance occurred last year, when "The American Psycho" got into it publicly with UFC Welterweight Josh Koscheck, regarding Bonnar using Koscheck's likeness on one of his "Trash Talking Kids" t-shirts.
Bonnar appeared on HDNet's "Inside MMA" earlier tonight (Apr. 23, 2012), discussing his recent trip to Bahrain where he, Rich Franklin and Keith Jardine visited with some U.S. troops who were serving overseas. Apparently, Bonnar and his shirts are back in the news, and you'll never guess what kind of trouble his clothing line got him into this time:
"We're getting ready to leave Bahrain, and I get detained at the airport. Jardine and Franklin get on the flight, and they take me in the room. They're asking me all these questions, and they're furious. One guy's comin' in the room and pointin' at me, all furious, like that. And, what I think is that, I had on the 'Young Assassin' shirt, with Melvin Guillard, and there's a guy with a turban with his brains spillin' out. I don't think they liked that too much."